(CNN) - First lady Michelle Obama called the number of homeless veterans “a stain on our nation’s soul,” urging local officials to continuing working to fight the problem.

At an event in Washington on Thursday, Mrs. Obama told a packed room, “as Americans, the idea that anyone who has worn our country’s uniform spends their night sleeping on the ground should horrify us. So it’s truly our duty to right this wrong and put an end to veteran homelessness once and for all.”

Washington (CNN) – Bill Clinton, just hours before planes crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, reportedly told an audience in Australia that he almost killed Osama bin Laden during his presidency.

Speaking to a group of businessmen in Australia on September 10, 2001, according to audio aired by SkyNews Australia on Wednesday, Clinton said that he "nearly got" the al Qaeda leader but didn't go through with a missile attack because of the collateral damage that would have come from it.

CNN’s POLITICAL GUT CHECK | for July 31, 2014 | 5 p.m.
— n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

BREAKING … TEMPORARY MIDEAST CEASE-FIRE:U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Secretary of State John Kerry say the U.N. hasassurances that all parties have agreed to an unconditional humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. It will commence at 8 a.m. local time on Friday and will last for 72 hours unless extended.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - On what was supposed to be the last day before summer recess, dysfunction reigned in Congress.

House Republican leaders called off a vote Thursday on their $659 million emergency response to the border influx from Central America overwhelming immigration resources, unable to agree among themselves about what to do.

(CNN) - Chris Christie's jam packed schedule on Thursday afternoon and evening in New Hampshire was advertised as being all about the 2014 midterm elections.

But the visit by the Republican governor of New Jersey and potential GOP presidential contender also had plenty of 2016 implications, as Christie tries to get beyond the bridge controversy back home in the Garden State that's hurt his political standing.

(CNN) - Republican Gov. Chris Christie called on New Jersey's Democratic-controlled legislature to pass a series of bail reform proposals, saying the current system creates a "debtor's prison" for poor people charged with nonviolent crimes.

"We are failing when we have a system that works against the very people in our society who need us to fight for the fairness they often cannot fight for themselves," the governor said Thursday.

(CNN) - Hollywood actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, one of President Barack Obama’s biggest backers in 2008 and 2012, has grown disillusioned with the President, she told Time Magazine in an interview released Thursday.

The actress said, “I really believed in him, and I’m not sure what he believes in anymore.”

Washington (CNN) – Just like anyone thinking about applying for a new position, Hillary Clinton – or people close to her – have tinkered with and beefed up the promotional biography she uses at different events.

Since leaving the State Department in 2013, Clinton's speaking agency provided organizations before which she was appearing with a variation of the lengthy bio that she uses at the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The organization would, in turn, use some or all of the bio in promotional and press materials.